


The Dragon Prince

by ArabellaFaith



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-12-04 11:34:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11554362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArabellaFaith/pseuds/ArabellaFaith
Summary: Prompt:Prince LindwormA queen is infertile and is told by a witch to eat a magical red rose for a boy or a magical white rose for a girl, but ONLY one. They are however so tasty she decides to eat both, resulting in twins - a hideous serpent that scurries off, followed by a beautiful boy. She keeps this a secret. Time comes for the handsome young prince to marry, but as he begins his search for a bride, everywhere he goes, his path is blocked by a giant serpent saying, "A bride for me before a bride for you." The queen then admits to the serpent being his older brother and they find him a princess. The next day the serpent has eaten her and demands a new bride. After this has happened a couple of times, neighboring kingdoms refuse to supply any more princesses and a shepherd's daughter is forced to marry the serpent. Before the wedding, she comes across the same witch as before who tells her to get ten white dresses, a tub of lye, a tub of milk, and a bunch of whips. On the wedding night, when the groom asks her to shed her dress, she's to ask him to shed his skin, and continue until all the skins are shed. At this point, she is to whip him soundly with a lye-soaked lash, bathe him in milk, and embrace him. She does so, and finds before her a handsome prince. The court rejoices at finding them together the next morning and a second wedding is held.All canon characters, plots, and situations from the Harry Potter series belong to JK Rowling.  I am not profiting from this work.





	The Dragon Prince

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [Once_Upon_a_Parchment](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Once_Upon_a_Parchment) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> Prince Lindworm
> 
> A queen is infertile and is told by a witch to eat a magical red rose for a boy or a magical white rose for a girl, but ONLY one. They are however so tasty she decides to eat both, resulting in twins - a hideous serpent that scurries off, followed by a beautiful boy. She keeps this a secret. Time comes for the handsome young prince to marry, but as he begins his search for a bride, everywhere he goes, his path is blocked by a giant serpent saying, "A bride for me before a bride for you." The queen then admits to the serpent being his older brother and they find him a princess. The next day the serpent has eaten her and demands a new bride. After this has happened a couple of times, neighboring kingdoms refuse to supply any more princesses and a shepherd's daughter is forced to marry the serpent. Before the wedding, she comes across the same witch as before who tells her to get ten white dresses, a tub of lye, a tub of milk, and a bunch of whips. On the wedding night, when the groom asks her to shed her dress, she's to ask him to shed his skin, and continue until all the skins are shed. At this point, she is to whip him soundly with a lye-soaked lash, bathe him in milk, and embrace him. She does so, and finds before her a handsome prince. The court rejoices at finding them together the next morning and a second wedding is held.
> 
> All canon characters, plots, and situations from the Harry Potter series belong to JK Rowling. I am not profiting from this work.

“Once upon a time there was a terrible dragon prince.  He was cold and cruel and lived alone in his castle.  The time came when the kingdom’s new laws demanded he marry.  A vicious war had taken many lives, and the population was dangerously low.  But there was no one who pleased the prince, and the few who dared try to court him were driven away by his beastly demeanor.  Any maiden that set foot in his castle fled by morning, unable to bear his presence a moment longer.  

 

Eventually, there were no ladies of noble birth that would marry him, so it was arranged that he would wed a maiden of common blood that the prince had been educated with as a child.  Though they had been rivals, the maiden had run out of the allotted time to find a husband for herself, so she had little choice.   They were married right away, because it was feared that she would flee like all the others if they spent even a few hours together, despite the precariousness of her situation.  As soon as the ceremony was finished, the couple was whisked back to the lonely castle, where they were to spend ten days in seclusion.

 

The maiden spent the rest of the day exploring the castle, which she’d only been inside once, years before.  The prince prowled the gardens restlessly.  For a moment, the maiden saw him through a window; he plucked a flower, observed it thoughtfully, then shook his head and crushed the fragile bloom beneath his heel.  She thought, if it was a sign of things to come, then her married life would be a very unhappy one indeed.  When night fell, the prince returned to the castle, and after a bitter argument, carried his bride off to his chamber and ordered her to remove her dress.  But the maiden was courageous, and she demanded that he first-”

 

“Mommy, why did the prince want the maiden to take her dress off?”

 

Hermione sputtered, choked, and felt her face turn red.  “Uh, well, you see-”

 

“Yes, mommy, why  _ did _ the prince want the maiden to take her dress off?”  The silky drawl was laced with humor.

 

Hermione glared over her shoulder at her husband, where he leaned casually in the doorway.  “You are not helping,” she grit out.  He grinned at her shamelessly.  With a sigh, Hermione turned back to her daughter, tucking the blanket more securely around the little girl.  “He wanted her to take her dress off because… because-” she grinned suddenly as inspiration struck, “because secretly, he liked wearing ladies dresses-”

 

“Hey!”  Draco sounded indignant.

 

“-and he thought hers would look beautiful on him.  Unfortunately, he was far too fat for it-”

 

“ _ Oi! _ ”  The indignancy intensified.

 

“-and the pretty silver color only emphasized his receding hairline-”

 

“Now that’s just too far!”  Draco raised a hand to his forehead in horror.  “Mommy is telling the story wrong,” he informed his sleepy daughter haughtily.  “The prince wasn’t fat or balding, he was handsome and charming-”

 

“Charming?”

 

“-and very very rich.  Any woman would have been lucky to have him.  The maiden, on the other hand, was a bushy haired know-it-all who always had to have the last word in an argument-”

 

“That’s not true-”

 

“-and she was a pain in the prince’s neck forever after.  The end.”

 

“That’s a terrible ending!  What really happened is that the horrible dragon prince realized that his wife was brilliant and amazing and always right.  So he begged for forgiveness and  she spanked him for his childish behavior until his dragon scales fell away to reveal a meek and humble prince beneath, and then they lived happily ever-”  Hermione was cut off by the sound of a soft snore from the bed.  She looked over and realized that the little girl had fallen soundly asleep.  In unison, both parents moved quietly away from the bed, slipped from the room, and pulled the door closed behind them.

 

“I can’t believe she fell asleep right in the middle of your tirade,” Draco snickered.  Hermione poked him in the ribs.

 

“You’re probably the one who put her to sleep with your boring part of the story.”

 

“Oh, stuff it.  My bit was the best part.   At least I didn’t turn anyone into a fat, balding, cross-dresser,” he scoffed.

 

“What can I say?  I panicked.  Besides, you deserved it.”

 

“It’s not  _ my _ fault you were about to tell our five year old an X rated bedtime story.”

 

“I wasn’t- I just didn’t think that far ahead!”  Hermione shook her head, still embarrassed that she’d backed herself into such a corner with the story.

 

“Obviously,” Draco drawled, eerily reminiscent of his godfather.  Hermione pinched him this time, and he yelped.  

  
  


* * *

 

Later, when they were ready for bed themselves, Draco couldn’t help but tease Hermione again.  “You really are absolute pants at coming up with stories.”

 

“ _ You _ try coming up with a different one every night for two years.   It’s harder than it looks.”  She stripped out of her clothes efficiently at first, then slowed when she saw Draco’s eyes lingering on each bit of skin she exposed.  He stood staring for a full minute before he realized she’d noticed him, then cleared his throat and started taking off his own clothes, ignoring Hermione’s knowing smile.

 

“Well I could have told that story better, at least.”

 

“Oh really?”  Hermione reclined dramatically back onto the bed, arms splayed.  “Dazzle me.”

 

Draco cocked one pale brow at her, forcing his eyes to stay on her face and not to stray down to the naked swell of her breast.  “You want a bedtime story?”  Hermione only smiled at him expectantly.  “Fine,” he huffed, getting into bed and pulling her into his arms.  “Once upon a time there was a terrible dragon prince who lived alone in a castle, bla bla bla.  Very creative title, by the way.”

 

“I don’t hear you coming up with anything better.”

 

“I can’t very well change it  _ now _ ,” Draco argued.  “Anyway, he married the commoner, etcetera etcetera, and they returned to the castle for their ten day seclusion.  The new princess set off on her own immediately after they arrived, and the Prince,  _ attempting _ to be considerate, didn't follow.  While she explored her new home, he walked in the gardens thinking about how different his life would suddenly be, and if he might ever make the maiden happy, or if they would simply annoy each other to death.  He picked a flower, thinking he might give it to her as a peace offering, but decided she would think the gesture insincere.  Frustrated, he crushed the flower and went in search of his bride.  When he found her, she spoke coldly to him, and he answered her in kind.  They bickered, their old rivalry still as fresh as it had been in their youth, and the maiden threatened to leave the castle.   Angry at her seeming rejection, the prince carried the maiden off to his chamber - with her kicking him the whole way, I might add - and told her to remove her dress.  He had expected it would fluster her, that she would blush and try to protect her innocence.  Except the new princess wasn’t a maiden.  The prince, on the other hand, was.”

 

“A maiden?”  Hermione snickered.

 

“A maid.  Er- matron.  Manden.  Whatever the boy equivalent of that is.  The point is that he’d never taken anyone to his bed before, and though he would never have admitted it, he was nervous.  He acted angry and childish to cover for it, demanding that the princess take off her dress and get into his bed.  The princess knew that by law-”

 

“By the unjust and ridiculous law,” Hermione cut in.  Draco nodded without pausing.

 

“By the unjust but still enforced law, she had to, but being fierce and clever-” he smiled a little as Hermione snuggled into him, “she decided to bargain with him.  She said she would only bare herself to him if he first bared part of himself to her.  He made a very vulgar comment about which part of himself he was going to bare to her, which, while witty-”

 

“More like crude.”

 

“Crude  _ and _ witty, but she ignored it and said what he revealed had to be a secret.  Something he’d never told anyone before.  The prince balked at first, but finally agreed.  He admitted to her that sometimes he still had nightmares about the evil sorcerer who’d started the war and tried to take over the kingdom.  And after seeing a part of him that was a little less beastly than the rest, the maiden relented, took off her dress and got into the prince’s bed.”

 

“Then what happened?” Hermione’s tone was mischievous, and Draco huffed.

 

“Then the prince revealed, by his fumbling and lack of grace, the extent of his innocence.  When he  _ did _ finally figure out what to do, he lasted a mortifyingly short amount of time and then tried to leave the room in disgrace.  Thankfully, the princess, despite being a pushy swot, was also a kind and generous woman.  She called him back, filled a tub with hot water sweetened with honey, and bathed him.

 

The prince was so touched by her kindness that the next night, when she asked him for a secret in exchange for removing her clothes, he gave her one without argument.  He told her that the reason he had been so cruel to her friends the knight and the court jester- ow!” Draco swatted Hermione’s pinching fingers away, “was because he had always been jealous of them.

 

It seemed that the princess had already strongly suspected that, but hearing him admit it to her was enough to please her, and she let him take her to bed.  This time, the prince knew exactly what to do, and tried to make up what he lacked in form with vigor and stamina that he had provided himself with by... er-”

 

“Wanking earlier in the day?”

 

“The prince would never word it so crassly, but yes.  He was so eager to make up for his performance the night before that in his haste, he hurt the princess.”  Draco stopped and took a breath, his arms tightening around Hermione as he kissed her forehead.  Even years later, the memory of that night haunted him.  Hermione stroked his arm softly, reminding him of the forgiveness that she had given him long ago. “He hurt the princess,” Draco managed to go on, “which was something he had never wanted to do, not even when they had been young and foolish, and he swore that it would never happen again.  That night, he was the one who drew the water and bathed  _ her _ .  Because she was compassionate and saw that his remorse was genuine, she forgave him.  

 

The night after that, they again made their exchange, a secret for the princess's clothes.  He told her that as children, she had frightened him.  Her very existence, the fact that someone of common birth could be so brilliant, so talented, made him question his beliefs.  And he had lived in a world where doubt was deadly.  Appeased, and perhaps a little flattered, the princess got into his bed.  This time, the prince learned from his mistakes of the nights before.  Instead of thinking only of himself, he set about pleasing the princess first.  With his mouth and his hands, and some instruction from his very smart new wife, he succeeded, and was so proud of himself that he wasn’t even embarrassed that taking his own pleasure took far less time than he thought it should.

 

Over the next seven nights, they-”

 

“You can’t just skip over the middle of the story!  Those are some of my favorite bits!” 

 

“You want me to detail all the sexual exploits of the next week?  That would take till morning.”

 

“Fair enough,” Hermione conceded with a grin.  “At least tell the rest of the secrets.”

 

“Pushy little thing, aren’t you?”  Draco sighed in mock impatience.  “ _ Fine _ .  The next night, he told her that he had once found a few reddish hairs at the nape of his neck and had been terrified for a whole week that he was somehow turning ginger, before realizing that it was just the dye from his red neck pillow rubbing off on his hair.  She called him poncy for owning a neck pillow and then mused that he would make an attractive redhead.  The prince was so mortified that he made her scream his name in pleasure just to shut her up, then did it again for good measure.”

 

“You’re still proud of that.”

 

“Of course.  It was only the prince’s fourth time, after all.  Which he tried to admit as his secret the night after that, but the stubborn princess claimed that it was so obvious that it didn’t count as a secret.  The prince was  _ thoroughly _ annoyed, but since he was also very eager to get the princess naked, he told her that instead of living off of his wealth, he wanted to become a healer.  To make amends, in some small way, for the harm he had done in his youth.  That secret pleased the princess so much that she used  _ her _ mouth to-”

 

“I thought you were just telling the secrets,” Hermione interrupted, fighting a blush.

 

“Spoilsport.”  Draco grinned crookedly.  “The sixth night he told her that he had a deep and abiding love of muggle music, which would have horrified his friends if they ever found out.  The seventh night he admitted that his father used to beat him with his cane when he was angry, which was often.  The eighth night he told her that as a child, a tailor had once mistaken him for a girl and made him a dozen dresses, and the ninth night he revealed that… after the war, his mother, who was the only family he’d had left in the world, could not live with her demons.  It was thought by the kingdom that an illness had taken her life, but the truth was that she’d thrown herself from the topmost spire of the castle.”  Draco swallowed thickly, his grief over his mother’s death lessened with time but still painful.  Hermione held him close, offering him wordless comfort.

 

They laid quietly in the dark for long moments, and when she realized that he didn’t intend to go on, Hermione asked, “and on the tenth night?”

 

Draco sighed and gave her a sideways glance, a ghost of a smile returning to his face.  “Aren’t you tired yet?”

 

“Not even remotely.”

 

“On the tenth night… the tenth night he told her that the reason he’d driven all his other suitors away, the reason she had been the one he’d agreed to marry, was that he was in love with her.  That he’d loved her for years.  That he would love her forever if she would let him.”

 

Hermione smiled, still warmed by the confession even years later.  She pushed up to her elbow and finished the story for him.  “And finally, all his scales had been stripped away.  He was no longer a dragon, but a kind and gentle prince.  She saw him truly for the first time and realized that she loved him in return.  So she told him, and they kissed, and lived happily ever after.”

 

“But not before some  _ very _ enthusiastic sex.”

 

Hermione giggled and smacked him with her pillow.  “You’re a cad.”

 

“I thought I was prince charming?”

 

“You can be both,” Hermione laughed.  “And let’s not forget the part of the story where the princess worked tirelessly to prove that the ridiculous Marriage Law was unjust, and finally had it revoked.”

 

“Which made it all the more wonderful that she stayed by the prince’s side, even though she didn’t have to.  They married again, this time with the whole kingdom in attendance, even the court jester and his many many  _ many _ relatives-  _ ow! _  Stop pinching me, wench!”

 

“Stop insulting our friends, then.”

 

“ _ Our _ friends?”

 

“Yes,  _ our _ friends.  Ron is our child’s godfather.  That automatically makes the two of you friends.”

 

“I don’t remember agreeing to that.”  

 

Hermione raised her hand to pinch him again and Draco quickly conceded defeat.  “Alright, alright!  Friends.”  He huffed at the smug look on her face and considered amending his phrasing to  _ acquaintances _ , but decided the resulting pinch wouldn’t be worth it.   “So, are you going to admit that I’m a better storyteller than you are?”

 

“Nope.”

 

“What?”  Draco drew back, affronted.  “Come on, that was an excellent story.”

 

“But it was entirely inappropriate.  You can’t have wanking and cock sucking in a child’s bedtime story.”

 

“ _ I _ never used the term cock sucking.  And you’re the one who said wanking.”

 

“Admit it, your story was just as X rated as mine was shaping up to be.”

 

“Alright,  _ fine _ .  But it was still a bloody good story.”

 

“Now that, I can agree to.”  Hermione kissed him, humming softly in appreciation when she felt a hard length press against her thigh.

 

“Although…”  Draco put his finger to his lips thoughtfully.  

 

Hermione groaned.  “You still want to  _ talk _ ?  Fine, I concede.   Your story was better.  Now let’s-”

 

“No, I’ve decided that your story was better after all.”

 

“And why is that?” she asked peevishly.  Really, if he didn’t get a move on, she was just going to climb on top of him and-

 

“ _ Your _ story had spanking.”  He waggled his brows lecherously.  Hermione burst out laughing.

 

“Are you suggesting that you want me to spank you?”

 

“Er, no. I was thinking the other way around.  In fact, I’ll tell you a new story.  It’s called, ‘The Naughty Schoolgirl Gets Punished.’”

 

“Sounds like a perfect title.  But how about instead of a story, we put on a play?”

 

“I like the way you think, Miss Granger,” Draco purred, rolling over to pin her to the bed.  “Let’s start with act one: Dirty Talk in Detention.”


End file.
